| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| September 12, 2007 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 11 Number 10 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Ten Challenges for Humanitarian Orgs |
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One of the high points of the recent World Vision Triennial Council meeting in Singapore was a remarkable address by Jan Egeland, former UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator. Egeland has been deeply involved in the resolution of intractable conflicts in places such as northern Uganda and the eastern Congo and was one of the early voices to bring Darfur to the world’s attention.
He reported progress in poverty reduction in many places, but he said we still need to convince the 2 billion richest people in the world that they have the responsibility to "lift up" the 1 billion still suffering from extreme poverty. And while we now have 50% fewer wars and conflicts than in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell, the answer to the question of whether we are doing enough to resolve the toughest and most deadly conflicts "on our watch" is, "No, we’re not." Egeland listed 10 challenges, important for any group seeking to relieve human suffering:
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| Clothing Bins: Donor Beware! |
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Clothing donation bins have proliferated across South Jersey in recent years, sometimes appearing without permission in the dead of night, sometimes with sketchy-sounding names and links to profitmaking companies. Bins that bear the name of a legitimate charity do not always direct all the proceeds to the charity.
A New Jersey bill would require bin sponsors to get municipal permits, display phone numbers, and disclose where donations will be sent and how much money raised by them will go to charity. Tougher laws thrust government into a growing struggle: On one side, established charities, which say the surge in bins deprives them of donations. On the other, organizations contending that a bin crackdown would partially shut down a successful, self-sustaining recyling modality and fatten landfills with castaway clothes. "I think most people believe that when they donate to these bins, [their clothing] gets into the hands of needy people and helps charitable organizations," said New Jersey Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-Gloucester), a sponsor of the bin bill, which easily passed both houses in June. "That's largely a myth. These for-profit companies in many instances rent the name of a charity, slap it on the bin, make a nominal donation to that charity, and take the lion's share of the profits." Sometimes, bins show up without property owners' knowledge: "I had no idea what they were," said Jay O'Donnell, a vice president of NVC Realty, which manages a former gas station property at Haddonfield Road and Maple Avenue in Cherry Hill. Two blue bins marked "St. Joseph's Parish Outreach" had mysteriously appeared. The toll-free number on the bins led to an answering machine for Earthrite Textile Recycling, based in Ronkonkoma NY. Multiple phone messages asking for comment were not returned. The bins then vanished. Clothing from many bins goes to large distribution centers, where it is packed into 100- or 1,000-pound bales and sold to dealers in Mexico, Africa and other developing areas. "I deliver clothing to the continent of Africa [and] sell it to importers for less than the cost of a postage stamp," said Edward Stubin, president of exporter Trans-America Trading. Importers pay duty on the clothes, then sell them for about $1 an item, he said. Many charities are happy to authorize the use of their name on bins: It's expense-free fundraising. Amvets, which supports veterans through counseling services and lobbying in Washington, does "very, very well" from bins, said its executive director, Ted Liva. Amvets gets $60,000 annually, said Liva, or about 10% of the clothing sales revenue from a bin-collection company called Garden State Wiper. Once New Jersey's bin law takes effect, bin owners would need a permit from the appropriate municipality. Each bin would have a sign identifying the owner and explaining the manner in which clothing donations would be used or sold. Owners would have to disclose what percent of the revenue from clothing sales actually would go to the charity. Source: Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Juvenile Justice Disarray a Threat to Liberian Peace |
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A teenager accused of rape, Abraham peers through the rusty bars of his prison cell where he has languished for two months. His wide eyes and childlike manner belie his alleged crime.
"I don't like being the youngest," said the 14-year-old. "Sometimes other prisoners make me do things I don't want to." He said that when he first came he could not sleep at night. "Sometimes because I was frightened and sometimes because there was no space to lie down." He shares a cramped, dirty cell with eight other minors accused of similar crimes. At night they fight over the cell's single foam mattress. The children have no mosquito nets and lack proper sanitation. Also lacking is due process. Abraham, like all but one of the prison's 28 juvenile inmates detained in Monrovia Central Prison, Liberia's most overcrowded jail, has not yet been tried. Most of the children have never seen a judge specializing in crimes committed by minors. Four years after the end of Liberia's brutal 14-year war, the juvenile justice system is barely functional. Its problems mirror the breakdown of the judicial system as a whole, which the UN says is one of the major threats to the stability of the country. "Until the army and police can stand on their own and the justice system is rehabilitated and accessible to all Liberians, the country will remain vulnerable to the risk of a return to lawlessness," the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in an August 8 report. The head of the UN Mission in Liberia, Alan Doss, recently said that strengthening the judicial system will be one of the most important requirements for a sustainable peace in Liberia as the mission eventually draws down. Source: IRIN |
| New School Wows East Camden |
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When the new Octavius V Catto Community School opened in East Camden on Thursday, it drew rave reviews from students, teachers, and residents who believe it will help eventually transform the entire neighborhood. Resident Catherine Vicent, who dropped off her daughter Taina at the school, said Catto has already given the neighborhood a new look. "It doesn't look like Camden at all. It's
beautiful," said Vicent, 51, standing in front of the 90,000-square-foot school at Westfield Avenue and Dudley Street. "I've never seen anything like it."
The school is a technological marvel -- from smart boards and sensor lights that come on automatically -- to computerized thermostat controls. The entire building is wireless, and every teacher will be issued a laptop. Although it kept its old name, the school has a new mission: the curriculum focuses on math and science. Classes are small, with no more than 20 students. Unlike most elementary schools in the city, Catto has a state-of-the-art science lab. The school also has an oversize gym, rooms for computers, art, and music, and facilities for virtual and distance learning. "It's absolutely magnificent," said veteran fourth-grade teacher Pat Nicgorski. The sparkling building replaces the nearby antiquated 76-year-old Catto and the crowded Dudley Elementary. It enrolls about 540 pre-K through sixth graders. Located on an eight-and-a-half-acre site on what was once Dudley Grange Park, the $78 million school was created to offer more than new learning opportunities. Designated as a redevelopment area, the school project was required to include amenities that could be used by the community and to benefit residents socially and economically. Project manager Dwaine Williams said the community has already benefited and believes there will be more payoffs. About 211 families have been relocated from an apartment complex across the street from the school, and 52 of those are now homeowners, Williams said. The complex will be razed, he said, and replaced with a park when the remaining two dozen families move out. An abandoned railroad track near the school has been replaced with a bucolic bike trail and walking path. Tennis courts and an amphitheater for outdoor performances were added to the spruced-up grounds. The school adjoins a new Boys and Girls Club, the second in the city, which is scheduled to open this month. The club has an indoor pool, meeting rooms, and recreational facilities that will be open to the public. Camden competed against eight districts across the state to land the state-funded demonstration project. Similar projects were approved in Trenton, Vineland, East Orange, Newark, and New Brunswick. Source: Philadelphia Inquirer |
| The Benefits of Biofuels for Poor Farmers |
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The world's rural poor could benefit from a boom in fuel wrung from crops, despite worries that an accompanying surge in food prices could result in more hunger, say environmental and food experts. But for the poor to share in the bounty of the so-called biofuel revolution, trade and agricultural policies and the practices of the fuel-from-food industry itself must be changed.
Many agricultural commodities have been in a virtual price freefall since the 1970s, with devastating consequences for entire economies. But key prices have bounced back in recent years, in large measure due to the biofuel industry. "Decades of declining agricultural prices have been reversed thanks to the growing use of biofuels," said Christopher Flavin, president of the Worldwatch Institute. "Farmers in some of the poorest nations have been decimated by US and European subsidies to crops such as corn, cotton, and sugar. Today's higher prices may allow them to sell their crops at a decent price." Additionally, said Flavin, countries that develop domestic biofuel industries should be able to buy fuel from their own farmers rather than spending scarce hard currency on imported oil, the price of which has tripled in recent years. Even so, the biofuel industry will help to reduce hunger and poverty only if production shifts from rich to poor countries, said the top United Nations food and agriculture official. FAO director general Jacques Diouf urged US and EU leaders to lower trade barriers that he said make it uneconomic for developing countries to grow biofuel crops. He also called for small-scale financing to help farmers in poor countries to produce local biofuel. "Such measures would allow developing countries -- which generally have ecosystems and climates more suited to biomass production than industrialized nations and often have ample reserves of land and labor -- to use their comparative advantage," Diouf said last month in a published commentary. Additionally, efforts are needed to ensure that human bellies do not lose out to fuel tanks at harvest time and that the world's remaining forests are not threatened by expanding biofuel cultivation. Worldwatch urges switching from using food crops to other forms of biomass including farm and forestry waste. Source: Inter Press Service |
| A Penny Saved is a Welfare Cent Lost |
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In 1990, newspapers around the country profiled the story of Grace Capetillo, a welfare mom from Milwaukee who, after managing to save $3,000 in the bank, was hauled into court by the county Department of Social Services and charged with fraud. Having breached the limit on allowable assets, Capetillo was found guilty and ordered to pay a fine of $1,000, spend down another $1,000 of the money she had
worked hard to save, and promise not to save again if she wanted to stay on assistance.
The country was rightfully outraged; the system was clearly broken. Yet today, 17 years later and a decade since welfare reform, asset limits continue to send mixed messages to the poor. In order to qualify for government assistance, from cash welfare and food stamps to disability income, low-income families must demonstrate they are not only income-poor but asset-poor as well. These rules were understandably designed to preserve assistance for those truly in need, but in practice they discourage savings, which in turn leaves people more vulnerable to income shocks and holds them back from economic independence. While most would agree with the need for policies to protect income-support programs from fraud, existing asset limits are either far too restrictive or, in some cases, entirely unnecessary. Take welfare. The program that gives temporary assistance to needy families requires all recipients to engage in 30 to 40 hours of "work activities" every week, meet stringent income requirements, and be subject to strict time limits. Coupled with the stigma associated with welfare, it's no wonder that asset limits have become entirely unnecessary in preventing fraud (only 0.5% of applicants a year were denied assistance due to the asset limit in Virginia). In 1996, welfare was redesigned to be an option of last resort -- and in that respect it has overwhelmingly succeeded. The campaign for asset-limit reform is gaining momentum:
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| GPS and Handhelds Help Contain Malaria |
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GPS and PDAs are improving scientists' ability to prevent the spread of malaria, according to a paper published in the August issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said they had
developed a method for survey sampling and data collection using the handheld global positioning technology.
Researchers used the devices to collect data on bed nets treated with insecticides in homes in the West African countries of Togo and Niger. The CDC designed sampling software for researchers to use with Windows Mobile devices. Researchers used the technology to compile complete lists of households in the area and to choose a random sampling. They used GPS to find the homes and conduct interviews. "What made this process so effective is that interviewers were able to create lists -- sometimes with more than 500 households -- in the morning, and by the afternoon they were able to interview a random sample of those households," author Jodi Vanden Eng said in a prepared statement. "Before we developed this method using these devices, it usually took days or even weeks to complete the same task." Previous methods included spinning a bottle to determine which direction surveyors would go to search for homes and interviewees. PDAs offer electronic questionnaires with built-in data checks to reduce human error from old paper and pencil methods, the researchers said. The technology also allows data aggregation, verification, and identification of input errors within minutes. Finally, the technology allowed the authors to evaluate the impact of distributing free insecticide-treated bed nets through childhood immunization campaigns. Authors were able to present the information to the Ministry of Health, program managers, international scientists, and policy makers within hours of collecting the data. "Such rapid reporting can contribute to data-driven decision making and help to influence the targeting of program resources and activities," co-author Adam Wolkon said in a prepared statement. Vanden Eng said that team members from West Africa, who had no computer experience, learned how to use the devices and programs in five days of training. "And, we were able to power the PDAs with our car battery, making them an excellent alternative to use where bringing a laptop computer would be impossible." Researchers said they believe that the technology and methods could be useful in many public health situations, including disasters and efforts to identify underserved geographic areas to provide aid. Chinese leaders are currently testing similar technology for tracking bird flu. Source: Information Week |
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| Life-Net News Extras |
| Security Guards and Taxi Drivers Unite |
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Under leadership of the TWA-PA, Taxi Drivers of Philadelphia went on a 24-hour strike last Wednesday to protest the faulty GPS system in their cabs. On the same day at noon, security officers from Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania led 100 protesters at the Bell Tower in the middle of Temple’s campus in a rally to make their case for five paid sick days.
The guards were trying to pressure Temple president Anne Weaver Hart to in turn put pressure on Allied Barton, the security company headed by Revlon owner Ronald Perelman. Allied Barton subcontracts security officers for both Temple and Penn as well as a number of other locations around the city. Perelman is also a contributor to both universities. Thomas Robinson, a security guard on Penn’s campus and a student at Temple, spoke of a growing sector of insecure labor in Philadelphia, as represented by the security guards and taxi drivers, large numbers of whom are community members in North, West, and South Philadelphia neighborhoods. Khalif Dobson of the Philadelphia Student Union drew a connection between the low quality of education in many public schools, and the kinds of jobs that are available to Philadelphia public school graduates. "We don’t want to be fighting for better wages all our lives." The demonstrators then marched, singing, to Hart’s office, hoping to deliver demands and supportive petitions on behalf of the guards to the president and to schedule a meeting. While chanting outside, those gathered were informed that both the president and her scheduler were on vacation and no one was available inside Sullivan Hall. As part of the taxi drivers strike, shortly after 2pm Friday about 50 taxi drivers and their allies converged on 31st & Market to hold a rally and force PPA to hear their voice. Surrounded by a host of TV cameras for the local corporate media, Ronald Blount, the president of TWA explained that the drivers have been "patient" and the GPS system the PPA forced on the drivers "just doesn't work and is a problem for both drivers and customers." Blount went on to declare the strike an absolute victory, with 85% of drivers striking and explained that "while you may see cars in Center City that is the only place you will find drivers." Following this Blount declared that because of the unqualified success of the strike, the drivers were only going out for one day, as opposed to the two-day strike originally planned. Following Blount a number of drivers came out and made their case regarding the difficult lives of drivers and the problems with the PPA and the GPS system. At this point, drivers were joined by groups from all across the city. Members of the UNITE-HERE Justice Committee, Philadelphia Student Union, and security guard Thomas Robinson all spoke out in support of the taxi drivers. Echoing the words of one of the student leaders of the Philadelphia Student Union, Khalif, as well as Thomas Robinson, Blount declared at the end of the rally, "This is not just about taxi drivers, this is about all outsourced and unfairly treated workers in the city. The is the face of new labor in the city." Source: Philadelphia Independent Media Center |
| Mother Teresa 'Miracle' Patient Accuses Nuns |
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An Indian woman whose "miracle" cure from cancer was instrumental in the beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta has accused the Sisters of Charity of abandoning her to a life of penury. The complaint of Monica Besra, 40, struck a sour note during commemorations of the 10th anniversary of Mother Teresa's death, as hundreds of faithful gathered in Calcutta for candlelit processions and an interfaith prayer vigil.
Besra became an overnight celebrity in September 1998 when she reported that she had been cured of a tumor after praying to Mother Teresa while pressing a medallion bearing the nun's image to her side. The "miracle" was claimed as Mother Teresa's first posthumous act of healing -- she died in 1997 -- and was cited at a ceremony in October 2003 in which the Albanian-born nun was beatified by the Vatican. However more than a decade later, Besra says she has been abandoned by the nuns who escorted her to Rome four years ago as living proof of their Mother Superior's healing powers. "My hut was frequented by nuns of the Missionaries of Charity before the beatification of Mother Teresa," said Besra, squatting on the floor of her thatched and mud house in the village of Dangram, 460 miles northeast of Calcutta. "They made a lot of promises to me and assured me of financial help for my livelihood and my children's education. "After that, they forgot me. I am living in penury. My husband is sick. My children have stopped going to school as I have no money. I have to work in the fields to feed my husband and five children." At Mother House, the global headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity which now has more than 750 homes for the destitute around the world, news of Besra's complaints was greeted with concern. Sister Nirmala, Mother Teresa's successor as superior-general, said her case was being looked at. "Monica Besra herself says she was cured by Mother's miracle. Nuns of the Charity are in touch with Besra. I talked to her over telephone this morning." "She is upset after her daughter flunked the school-leaving examination this year. We know she is having hard times. We are trying to do our best for her." Away from Besra's controversy, hundreds of well-wishers attended a vigil at the tomb of Mother Teresa last Wednesday, offering prayers to her memory and for her elevation to the sainthood. "She is already a saint to us," said Sunita Ekka, who was among the worshippers visiting Mother House. "It is a matter of time before the Vatican will recognize her as a saint." According to Catholic tradition, two verifiable miracles are needed in order to be eligible for canonization. Mother Teresa's progress towards canonization was questioned recently after it had emerged in letters written to her spiritual confidant that she had endured a deep crisis of faith late in life. That Besra was cured by a miracle is disputed by several groups, including her doctors. They claim instead that her tumor disappeared as a result of early detection and medical treatment at the local hospital. Source: Telegraph (UK) |
| More Jobs, Less Poverty |
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Financially, most Americans are doing well. Even in the midst of the housing market's downturn, most Americans own their own homes -- nearly 70% -- more than ever before in our history, and most of the owners have seen the value of their homes climb to record highs. More than half of all Americans own stocks, a historic level of corporate ownership in equities that cuts across most income levels.
The US Census Bureau came out with its annual figures just before Labor Day that reported two other positive economic trends: The poverty rate fell last year for the first time in 10 years, and median household income, when adjusted for inflation, increased for the second consecutive year. The Census Bureau analysis said the rise in median income was largely due to the jump in the number of people who obtained full-time jobs. It further noted that the poorest households showed the largest gain in incomes. The chief reason: job creation. Unemployment has fallen over the past seven years and is down to 4.6% of the eligible workforce. More Americans are working now than at any other time in our history. Critics point to the wide disparity of incomes in our country -- or what they call "income inequality." But instead of concentrating on how much wealth, investments, and savings people at the higher-income scale have accumulated, we should be focusing on how to open up opportunities for wealth creation among those at the median-income level or below. One way is to stop taxing the interest on ordinary savings (outside of IRAs and other tax-free methods), and start offering paycheck mechanisms for workers to save more. One proposal sitting on the back burners in Congress would establish automatic savings accounts that small businesses would offer to any worker they hire. The money would be automatically withheld, as employers do now for payroll taxes, and deposited into a special tax-free account that each employee would own and take with them whenever they change jobs. Notably, the idea of establishing universal IRA-style savings accounts for all workers cuts across ideological lines. Both the conservative Heritage Foundation and the liberal Brookings Institution are jointly promoting the idea. The reason wealthier people are wealthy is because they own stocks and bonds. More Americans below the median-income levels can own stocks and bonds, too, if we let them put a small portion of their Social Security withholding into personal-investment accounts, as President Bush has proposed. Another idea is being pushed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: Abolish the capital-gains tax on stocks and dividends for people in the bottom tax brackets to encourage them to invest and keep more of their gains. Source: Town Hall |
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